Oxfordshire Visual Arts Development Agency

Hausner Ellen

Ellen Hausner

My work changes and moves constantly, which is a reflection of my international background, my constant travels, and my personal quest. Born in New York City in 1971, I was brought up in Asia and Africa and lived ten years in Sweden before moving to Oxford, England in 2011.

My interest in mysticism, so present in Asia and absent in the West, deeply permeates my work. A meditative state of mind is the starting point of creation for me, and I let it through by allowing the colours to present themselves, the figures to emerge, the forms to find their way into existence. The image comes through as I permit the materials I use to direct the piece. I conceive my paintings, drawings, and prints as explorations of the ephemeral and the unseen, whether the subject is a psychological state, a microscopic particle, an abstract concept, or a moment in prehistory. Creating images of that which does not have an image is what binds all of my work together. I move back and forth between abstraction and the figurative, but the aim is the same: through a versatile visual language, to give visual form to the forces of nature and the mind which cannot be put into words. My work is an exercise in process.